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My wife and I, went Sat. 16th and got my new Nova craft Prospector. Long day 500 miles total, we left Gettysburg at 4am. The canoe was bought at Appomattox River company, nice folks very relaxed, we had snow flurries etc. on and off all day. Chevy Silverado, with extend a truck worked fine. With gas what it is, when you travel, A V-8 and big ride comfort, is hard to beat. I am off work till Friday so I will make up some 4x4 blocks with foam, carpet, to bunk canoe on. I can now begin CANOETRIPPING!!! Best to you, and yours; Ravenwolf.
 
Ya there aren't many Nova Craft dealers in the US. I guess I'm, lucky, only 370 miles round trip to my NC dealer. Enjoy your new boat. Dave
 
EXCELLENT!! I hope you can post a pic or two of your canoe, the prospector is such an iconic design, just love to look at them. Good on Ya!! I hope you learn to love your new canoe.

Bob.
 
Congratulations RavenWolf. I admire that boat's reputation, which includes a capability of handling come-what-may. "If you could have only one boat" and intend to, say, cross the continent, what you have is a reasonable choice I think.

And it is a beauty.

I had a note for you in a post about pictures of paddling places. Can't remember subject though.

Appomattox is a good place. Got my Bob and SN there.

By the way, I read someone's description of a SN as a Prospector with the middle cut out.

What's your new baby's specs?
 
Hi, Acer just finishing up lower garden shed to store canoe, beautiful day here, got a fire going down back. The canoe is the 16ft. basic prospector in burgandy, name looks to be scarlet?
 
How sweet it is. A blue sky day, a new shed and a new boat in it.

The name has got to be Scarlet. If you read the Brits over at songofthepaddle you'll find people saying that the burgundy ones are a little faster. And they get away with it. Until someone with a blue reads that.

I still think about the burgundy SN that I passed up for a green one. For my purposes green photographs better though, and definitely it stashes better in the woods, which I have to do a lot.

We're getting out of the teens and twenties now, and I'll be getting on the water when the air goes up into the 50s, which happens from time to time all winter around here. I paddle at 2K' to about 3500', but the latitude is the same as that of Richmond, VA.

Late next month I get to photograph and write about brook trout fishing. A friend and I will hike up to the tiny head pools of a high elevation stream and stalk them. I think stalking is a better word for it than fishing. And it's all about cold, clean water and dark forest. We get to pick ramps for the stream side trout dinner. It should be a good party.
 
Acer, I would like to see, some of your photos some time. I am getting the painters, line ready do a little outfitting. Also very cold here today, trying to get the wife to practice some indoor canoe paddling, but she is crocheting the grandchild a Nemo blanket, so the session does not look like a go today. Best to you, and yours. Ravenwolf;
 
RW,

That boat of yours must be in RX, right?

It is the high outfitting season, or at least the start of it. All winter my area has been alternating 50 degree periods with snowy ones in the 20s. The middle latitudes are confusing. But I'm going to travel a little this summer, so I guess I'd better get going. First comes figuring out a way to attach the boat to the truck so someone will have a hard time walking away with it when I'm not around for the day.

These past months I've had a thing about exploring the middle Bluestone River, a tributary of the middle New River. The section I'm working on is only 10 miles long, but it's beautiful and not much traveled because access into the deep gorge is limited. I was there yesterday, and here's a sketch of what I saw. I have other posts about the Blue. I hope this one does not constitute swamping your thread.

The last photo is of a falls on Brush Creek, a tributary. I posted it by mistake.

The water is too low to run, and I'm not prepared for a winter float on this river anyway, so the fun for now is walking the shoreline. A mink on the bank came right up to within 10' of me, I watched an immature bald eagle glide by at treetop height, I jumped a GB heron out of the trees a couple of times, and I was impressed that with the exception of the new cabin and a line of horse hoof prints in the mud, there was not a sign that anyone had visited here in a long time. The terrain filters out people so much that none of this part of the gorge is posted.

This is the sort of thing I do, and I do it both from the boat and on foot. Every paddle is a series of hops to spots I can't say no to.


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Acer, do you paint? It seems that your soul is in the river. While the photos are very good, there is something more I sense...
 
Acer, thanks, for photos, they are great. That area is beautiful, yes canoe is RX-lite waiting for Pa. Registration so I can paddle. next week is my 50th B-day, so I want to go soon. I rode through new river area on a 14 day solo BMW, motorcycle trip, I liked Dolly sods, Green Bank area, every valley had a stream. Ravenwolf;
 
Yellowcanoe, their is a small tear in my eye, I missed that on the web site, the mail will be here soon, I am outside looking at Blue birds, they are beautiful. Raven;
 
Nope, I can't paint a lick. I'll have to get whatever's in me out through photographs. And there is the trick.

Every time I show someone else the result I get to live the process and the subject all over again. That is good.

As much as I like the rivers, they are a relatively new interest, and I always have and still do spend most of my time in the uplands.

I'm not sure that you were a SOLO TRIPPING member. That's the canoeing site which folded last year. A good number of its former enthusiasts, including me, are landing here.

At that site I discovered in myself a big urge to photograph and to write about the peculiar doings in the local plant and animal communities and the area's unexpectedly dramatic frontier history. These increasingly animated every paddle.

Now I haranque the blogosphere about what an adventure I'm having on the home streams. That's what's in my soul.

Where are you going to go in that RX(?) prospector?
 
Acer, Know I was not on the Solo-Tripping site. I have been reading two books by Edward Gertler, Pennslyvania canoeing, and Maryland and Delaware canoe trails. Also taking American Canoe classes Level 1 & 2 through the Harrisburg club. I like that canoetripping is a place, for ALL folks of all experience levels, cause I am as new, as you can get. Best day to you. Ravenwolf;
 
YC,

I confused your question about painting with RW's conversation. Sorry. I addressed my answer to him.


RW, I missed your answer to my pictures. Thanks. I'm glad that you like them. You too, YC, thanks for the compliment and the question.

RW. Well. Not only have you been out here, you ride BMWs too. My dear old R1100RSL sacrificed itself for SN money a few years ago. Where else did you get to on that trip?
Yup, the roads in the eastern part of the state are outrageous. Did you get to RT150, The Scenic Highway, which runs from near Marlinton all the way to Richwood? That's about 60 miles of forested mountains and nothing else. Little traffic. Sometimes no traffic. 20 miles is at 4K', but the other 40 goes along the Cherry River at lower elevation.

If you have a GS, there's a lot of unpaved.

I admire the paddling classes. No such thing out this way as far as I know.

The MD/DE trails book might be an idea for me. I have ties in MD and also a long time daydream of paddling to an all but forgotten old growth stand of bottom woods at the head of the Pautuxent River. I estimate that it's hard to get to except by boat. Years ago, before canoes, I lived near Zekiah and Mattawoman swamps in southern MD. I still think of trying spring trips. They could be hard because the channels are small and windthrows many. But the stuff I would see. Wow!!

There is the Blackwater on the Eastern Shore. It's bigger and it is paddled. I guess you know.


YC. I don't know. Ever since I was a kid I've just had to get out there. Maybe the photographs will help me grasp what's in it. Maybe not. It's lots of fun anyway. These days there's also a belated save the world drive: if I can get enough people get excited about vegetation succession there will be less war, pollution and poverty.
 
Acer, small world, I rode the entire Blue Ridge Parkway, then went northwest up through West Virginia. The end was a BMW rally near Cass, Green Bank. The rest of the wish we, had the campfire going story is I had four GSs and an R850R . Fast forward, met my angel we bought a small farm near Gettysburg. Next thing I know, I'm in a John Deere dealership, and putting a 1947 JD-B together. Lifes chapters, less is more chapter, being written hence CANOE. Ravenwolf.
 
Yellowcanoe, their is a small tear in my eye, I missed that on the web site, the mail will be here soon, I am outside looking at Blue birds, they are beautiful. Raven;

No bluebirds here. Got a good dollop of snow..three feet I reckon on the ground. A raven seems to have adopted our birdfeeder. He is BIG.. but aside from eating lots of food the chickadees are not intimidated by him.
 
Around here this month mostly there have been snow, sleet and rain days in the 20s and 30s. Plenty of them have been windy. At my elevation the accumulation hasn't been more than a few inches and it hasn't ever lasted long.

Prediction and hope: March will be a softie.


Raven, the farm does slow you down and demand focus. It's reward is intimacy with the land. Your history and mine have some parallels.

The canoe matches that I agree. You get to enjoy an intimacy with the water and the land around it. For me the small creeks, river and back channels around here are all about that.

A very small world indeed. I used to live in the Cass/Greenbank area and know the roads you found. A favorite go was to continue N on 92 and then take either 250 to Staunton, VA or 28 to Circleville and then on to 33 going to Harrisonburg, VA. Maybe you know them.

I started riding in 1969, when I lived in central NH, on the VT line. I'd take my 500cc Triumph out on those little 2 and 1& 1/2 lane roads and sometimes see only one or two cars all afternoon.

There's no paddling for me this week. It's wet and windy and cold and the water is still low.


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